Shishi turned around, considering the last words she just heard from the police chief. Was there a Stonefish Soul Master that she was aware of? Not that she could recall. It was an infamous Martial Soul due to its poison, comparable to the greats like the Jade Phosphor Serpent, but there has only ever been a few Titled Douluo that came from it.
She considered it once more, then shook her head. She'd inform the two children when they eventually return to Star Luo City to watch out for any danger. By the time they graduate they'd likely be 5-Ringed Soul Master's with full Battle Armour, Knowing their talent, likely even higher. They shouldn't be in much danger then.
She looked at the train that was about to depart. It was time to go. Even if she wanted to stay and investigate the corrupt police chief, she didn't have the time to.
As soon as she boarded the train, she heard a ring from her Soul Communicator. "Yes?"
"Shishi. There's an emergency. An Evil Soul Master has been spotted by Wu Zhangkong, the teacher of Class 1. There's a change of plans. Gather the students around you in a team. Wu Siduo, Val Karni, Wen Bao, Liu Liu, Yu Tian and Li Tai."
… … …
"It looks like you'll have to join our plans anyway." Karni laughed at Li Tai and Yu Tian as he saw the two enter the same cabin as the rest of them.
"We're only going the same route as you because we're forced to stay together." He looked at the unknown teacher that brought him in. Outside of Val Karni and Wu Siduo, the others weren't really aware of Shishi.
Well, there was an unusual reaction by a certain other student. Liu Liu jumped into the Titled Douluo's embrace when she saw her. And the respected Headmaster of the Orphanage warmly returned the hug.
Unfortunately for Shishi, Karni and Siduo immediately figured out who the person from Shrek Orphanage really was. They just weren't allowed to say anything.
"You've been gathered because of an unexpected incident that happened in Heaven Dou City. An Evil Soul Master was seen at the scene there. We've been ordered to group you together. I'll be with you from now on for your protection from those Soul Masters, but I won't interfere otherwise. You now act as a team. Good luck." Shishi announced, then stayed quiet.
Siduo grumbled aloud. "If I knew this was going to happen, I would've visited my family." She didn't visit it because she was scared that the police chief would follow them. It was too great a risk to go do something like that on her own.
"Were there any casualties?" Karni had to ask Shishi, even though she showed a sign of not wanting to be talked to.
"I wasn't told." Was all she said.
The group looked at each other. Every one of them had a few complaints. Karni clapped his hands and approached Li Tai and Yu Tian. "We're going to Green Tiger Town. There's still students that know of us there. We've also gotten some recommendations from the Headmaster of Star Luo City Academy. What's your situation looking like?"
Li Tai and Yu Tian glanced at each other. "We received only three recommendations from some family friends. Unfortunately though, they won't accept anyone outside our family for the challenge."
"Which cities?"
"Kinlist City, Guoling City and Radiant City." Yu Tian answered.
Karni looked at the map they received from Tie Tiao. "Hmm. We have Guoling City among our recommendations as well, while Radiant City is our final mission anyway. We only have a small detour to Kinlist City to make before Guilin City. It shouldn't take too much time."
The two nodded. They didn't have many complaints. If anything, they didn't even dare to have them due to Siduo being around. They were training under her for four months, yet still lost embarrassingly against Tang Wulin in the tournament. They were still scared that she was going to punish them, since she never did.
… … …
As soon as they arrived, they hurried to the Tie Family home. Yu Tian and Li Tai unfortunately didn't get a lot from their families. Three contacts, and money for two train rides. They wanted the two to be challenged. If they were going to use connections, those better be ones the two forged themselves. Like Karni and Siduo.
Tie Tiao and Ma Fai sent them here, because the two didn't have much money on their hands in Star Luo City. The Tie Family did have it however.
There were a few things they had to do here. Money was the first priority of course, but they'll need a more flexible way of travelling. Not all of the cities that they gained contact for had good train connections. They needed a car as well. They would also get their second battle in Green Tiger School.
Arriving at the Tie Family house, they went straight to Tie Kexin. They explained what was going on.
"I won't give you the money for free."
Karni was a bit taken aback. He didn't actually expect pushback.
Before he could say anything however, Tie Kexin raised her arm. "I'm thinking of expanding our business."
Karni listened. Where was this going?
"If you want money, you have to help us establish a small branch of our store in Shrek City during the holidays."
Karni looked at her dumbfounded. "Why would I refuse that?"
Tie Kexin smiled. "I know you wouldn't. I just wanted to tease you a bit. Here," she grabbed a card. "This has 100.000 Coins on it. Tiao called beforehand. I already prepared everything."
Karni heaved a sigh of relief. He thought things almost fell apart for a moment there.
"What about the car?" Siduo asked, as Karni grabbed the money.
Tie Kexin nodded, and immediately grabbed a piece of keys. They had a car, though it wasn't anything expensive for a car. Soul Cars were quite expensive in general.
Before she gave the keys to Siduo though, she paused, realising something. "You do still have your licences, right?"
Siduo paused as well. "... No…" She looked towards Karni, who facepalmed. How did they forget about that?
Tie Kexin sighed and stood up with her prosthetic legs. "I suppose it would be too easy. The border checks aren't that bad honestly, but you'll definitely have your certificates checked when going into Radiant City."
Liu Liu interrupted. "Wouldn't you just need a business licence? Saying you're to trade in Radiant City? You're a business right? You should be able to give your own version of a driver's licence even if it's not on the same level as a normal one."
They all turned to look at her. Tie Kexin checked some information and started nodding. "She's correct. Let's go quick. I should still have a copy of your merchant licence with me. It should be enough. Siduo, you're the one who got your licence right?"
Siduo nodded. She was indeed the one. She did it due to her Mecha Engineering research. She needed it to test out some of her ideas.
"Good. I'll get everything ready. It should take about an hour. You guys go do what you have to do in the meantime." Tie Kexin shooed them off as she got to work.
They made their way towards Green Tiger Academy. It was only a 10 minute walk away. As they approached the front gate, they saw a familiar face.
"Hu Fuya?" Siduo called out.
The girl, currently in the student guard uniform, looked towards the voice. "Siduo? What are you doing here?"
The other guard looked with a tinge of shock towards Siduo and the group. The strongest student in the academy knew them?
"We have an exam from Shrek Academy. Right now, we have to fight people at least 5 ranks stronger than us in 10 cities. You got any recommendations?"
"Hmm." Hu Fuya immediately went into thought, not doubting Siduo's words. "We have a few teachers at rank 40. The two strongest ones are rank 48, while the teacher from the highest class is a Soul King."
Karni's eyes shined. This might be perfect. "Do you know if the Soul King has Battle Armour?" They were unlikely to get a deal similar to the one they got with Teacher Ye, who offered a fight without Battle Armour.
"He hasn't completed his yet no." She fell silent for a second, before realising Karni's implication. "Wait. Do you actually need to battle a Soul King to meet your conditions?"
Karni and Siduo nodded. "Technically," Karni said. "We can fight a rank 49 Soul Master, since we're both rank 44 at the moment, but you said your teacher is rank 48 or a Soul King."
Hu Fuya nodded in amazement. She hadn't even gotten to Soul Elder yet. She hoped to reach that point by the time it was time for her to enter the Star Luo City Advanced Academy, though it seemed unlikely.
"I'll go talk to them. When they hear who you are, they'll likely accept. It will do good for our school."
… … …
Karni stood in an arena prepared by Green Tiger Academy. The process went even smoother this time, compared to the last. Karni and Siduo were both going to fight the Soul King teacher, Li Tai and Yu Tian were going to face the rank 48 teacher, while Wen Bao and Liu Liu were going to face a rank 42 teacher.
Wen Bao and Liu Liu were going to have the biggest challenge. Liu Liu had progressed fast at Shrek and already surpassed rank 30, but Wen Bao was still stuck at rank 29. The reason they chose such a challenge was for extra points and them being a duo.
"5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Begin." The Headmaster of Green Tiger Academy, Li Wuyi, announced, after giving a small speech.
Karni immediately activated his 2nd Soul Ring, since the teacher was looking him in the eyes. Then he Shifted in the sky above him. It had become a pattern in fighting his opponents when he knew they didn't know his abilities.
The teacher, despite being surrounded by a bunch of golden shadows, calmly summoned his Martial Soul. It was a Grey Spear and soft wind shifted around it. Soul Rings appeared. Yellow, Yellow, Purple, Purple, Purple. A standard variation. The third Soul Ring shone, and swiped 180 degrees around him, hitting nothing.
Karni smiled. He had refined this technique through the time. These days, he intentionally didn't make any fake predictions jumping from the air. All of them were charging on the ground.
This was still a Soul King he was facing though. He didn't get to this point without any good instincts. And those instincts were telling him of danger.
He summoned four pieces of Battle Armour. Two on the left arm, two on the right. His fourth Soul Ring shone. The wind concentrated around the spear, and he pointed it up. The wind spread all around his body, covering it in an improvised protective barrier.
Karni snickered. The guy may not have known that Karni was above him, but he sure as hell accidentally pointed a deadly weapon at him. He shifted his weight, dodging the spear and the wind on the side. He looked the man straight into his eyes.
This was when the teacher noticed Karni's Black Soul Ring, which just started to shine. Karni Shifted, from just outside the wind barrier, to just inside.
His Bo Staff split into Drumsticks, Karni charged with his Sonic Rhythm.
The teacher reacted appropriately, his second Ring shining, and a shadow of the Grey Spear appeared, blocking Karni's sound-filled Drumstick. It bounced off. The Soul King was thrown off-balance.
Karni used this chance to attack with the other Drumstick as well. He struck fast towards the chest.
A hand covered with Battle Armour blocked it. Karni quickly backed away. The Soul King looked at Karni in amazement. Both of his hands were trembling. He barely kept his grip on the spear.
Karni now had Disordered Drumstick Resonance active as well. This was an incredibly quick exchange of blows. He only now finished building it up to the magnetic effect of the ninth hit.
He spun and threw the Drumstick at the man, who intercepted it with his first Soul Ring, cutting the air in half as the Drumstick struck.
Karni received the Drumstick back like a boomerang, spinning, then sending it at the man again.
The pattern repeated. Drumstick, Spear, Drumstick. Drumstick, Spear, Drumstick. Each hit harder. Each hit heavier.
The fourth clash of spear and drumstick almost made the teacher stumble. He looked with a frown at Karni. His second Ring started shining before the Drumstick even returned to Karni.
Karni sent the drumstick at him again, as the man's fourth Ring shined. The copied spear received a circular wind around it, but not the actual Martial Soul. It was the copy spear that received Karni's attack this time. The man's arm trembled a little, but at the same time, a fifth Ring lit up.
Karni made an ugly face, the Drumstick won't arrive back before that fifth ring was released. The Soul King was holding the spear like a javelin. He was about to send it swirling towards Karni.
Karni waited patiently. The spear was sent flying, overtaking the Drumstick. He waited, the spear getting closer and closer, his Purple Demon Eyes and Golden Insight combining, analysing.
Patience. The spear was just at his nose. The tip was about to reach him, and Karni bent backwards, the spear flying past him. In the next instant, the Drumsticks clashed and Karni vanished.
In the next instant, the teacher fell, Karni standing behind him. He hit him on the head with the Drumstick in a perfectly timed sneak attack.
He won.
He could have done this differently. He could have dodged the spear with greater ease. He could have Shifted sooner, he could have been more aggressive. The problem was that all of those things would make the Soul King react better. Choosing such a well timed manoeuvre guaranteed him an instant win at great risk.
Karni knew his strengths. Spiritual Power and sneak attacks. His sneak attacks also relied on Spiritual Power. It was a perfect combination for tricking people. The problem was that this effect of his was very limited on people with Battle Armour. Those knowing his abilities also always considered his sneak attacks, which allowed them to set up traps for him in return. Soon enough, this technique would reach its limit.
He already noticed it with Teacher Ye. He only one hit her at exactly the 27th hit, when applying full power of his Third Soul Ring in the attack. He could not execute the 27th hit instantly. This Soul King was thankfully not very strong in regards to Spiritual Power, otherwise, Karni likely wouldn't have been able to one shot him in the end. He wasn't even at the 18th hit yet.
He went off of the arena, then smiled. Despite all of the problems that would come, he knew something. He could already beat opponents much stronger than him. He was a perfect counter for physical type soul masters. Siduo also had a problem with that, though he could hardly hit her in her fused form. He was sure she could survive at least three full 27th hits of Disordered Drumstick Resonance.
Nevertheless, he would grow stronger eventually. He was curious what his fifth Soul Ring was going to be. Hopefully something that would fill in his current weaknesses. The biggest one being, that without any Spiritual Power, he was just a sitting duck, waiting to be killed. He needed variation in his attacks.
His fast Shifts, those of emergency, that required instant and perfect lock ons in space, used up more than a 10th of his spiritual power at once, so he could speed up the process of locking on.
It was really a shame. If he had time, he would use only about 1 percent of his Soul Power per Shifting. But that was rarely the case. His average usage was around 6 percent of his Soul Power per Shift.
"We'll work on that eventually. When you are in the right environment." The Crow sounded. Right, he did mention something like that before.
He left, while Siduo entered. She had to wait though, since the Soul King needed a bit of healing and waking up.
… … …
The group was back at the Tie Family estate. A car and a licence was waiting for them.
Tie Kexin approached Karni. "Remember, we'll be visiting during the holidays. Get some ideas and contacts in mind that could help us."
"Mm." Karni nodded. He had a few ideas in mind already. He might be able to connect them with the Human Augmentation project in Tang Sect. In fact, he'd already thought about it before. Everything kind of fell into place. Now he only had to hope that the Tang Sect would cooperate. At least the people that worked on it.
The group settled in the car. It was… cramped. Karni was at the front with Siduo, who was driving. On the backseat, there were four people. Li Tai, Yu Tian, Wen Bao and Liu Liu. The two girls were a bit embarrassed, but for some reason, Li Tai was avoiding closeness with Yu Tian instead of Liu Liu, who sat next to him.
Their first stop was Kinlist City. A detour for Li Tai and Yu Tian.
… … …
Karni stretched at the rest stop. He looked at the distance and saw golden skyscrapers; mechas, flying around in the sky above them; the sun reflecting off of the buildings in a majestic manner. A city of metal and sun. Radiant City. They were here.
After a few days of travelling, they were finally here. They were fast, as well as lucky. Just after they arrived, they heard of an explosion on the highway. This now made the traffic a nightmare to get through.
The last few days have been both satisfying and difficult. Karni had quite a few Soul Master's he countered, but he also faced a few where he was caught into a battle of attrition. Control System Soul Masters and Defense System Soul Masters were quite difficult for him. Agility Systems proved a problem as well, since they constantly moved. Those were his least favourite, even though they were not the hardest. They reminded him of a lesser Siduo. A type of battle he knew would win, cause he was used to it, but would take time to win anyway. The battles essentially turned into a battle of sneak attacks, in which anyone could instantly be defeated.
Luckily his predictive powers gave him enough of an edge to survive those onslaughts.
The group made their way towards the centre. Somewhere here, Li Tai and Yu Tian had their contact. There was just one problem however.
"Sun Moon Imperial Academy?" Yu Tian sighed. They were all thinking it.
Karni sighed with him. "We should probably pretend to be students from somewhere else. There's bad blood between our schools."
"That's putting it lightly." Siduo added. "We basically destroyed their school once; though it wasn't really intentional, they never forgot."
Their thoughts were disrupted.
"Pay attention students of the Imperial Sun Moon Soul Engineering Academy! The six of us come from Shrek Academy! We're all fourteen years old and we're here to challenge your strongest team under the age of twenty! We're here to show you once again the gap between you and the greatest academy on the continent!"
Karni turned towards the sound. "Oh! Hey Sisi. This could be fun, let's go watch."
Shishi looked at the sound with a frown, then suddenly vanished, letting them go on alone.
What the group saw amazed them. Indeed there were six people standing there. Six people they knew very well. Tang Wulin, Gu Yue, Xie Xie, Xu Xiaoyan, Xu Lizhi and Ye Xinglan.
"Wasn't that Teacher Wu's voice?" Liu Liu realised. "Did he set them up?"
Karni began snickering. He looked in from the crowd, pushing his way to the very front. Indeed the faces that the group made were popcorn worthy.
"Sisi, what do you thi-" Karni stumbled in front, pushed into the empty space.
Tang Wulin looked at him.
Karni looked at Tang Wulin, then turned back to look at Siduo… who was gone. That blasted woman. She always had to-
"Oh!" Tang Wulin shouted. "Our seventh member, come, come."
Karni looked at those eyes full of hope, yet also full of cunning. Tang Wulin was going to do anything he could to win this fight. He could not let them lose. Wu Zhangkong's job depended on it. Not that Karni remembered that.
The others turned to look at Karni as well. "Oh! Our control system! Come, come!" Xu Xiaoyan was the loudest after Wulin.
Karni wanted to fight back, but he couldn't. The eyes from the crowd were already too big. He could only reply. "Xu Xiaoyan, you're the last person who has the right to say such things."